ety; to Professor E.B. Frost,
Director of the Yerkes Observatory; to M.P. Puiseux, of the Paris
Observatory; to Dr. Max Wolf, of Heidelberg; to Professor Percival
Lowell; to the Rev. Theodore E.R. Phillips, M.A., F.R.A.S.; to Mr. W.H.
Wesley; to the Warner and Swasey Co., of Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.; to the
publishers of _Knowledge_, and to Messrs. Sampson, Low & Co. For
permission to reproduce the beautiful photograph of the Spiral Nebula in
Canes Venatici (Plate XXII.), I am indebted to the distinguished
astronomer, the late Dr. W.E. Wilson, D.Sc., F.R.S., whose untimely
death, I regret to state, occurred in the early part of this year.

Finally, my best thanks are due to Mr. John Ellard Gore, F.R.A.S.,
M.R.I.A., to Mr. W.H. Wesley, and to Mr. John Butler Burke, M.A., of
Cambridge, for their kindness in reading the proof-sheets.

CECIL G. DOLMAGE.

LONDON, S.W.,
_August 4, 1908._

PREFATORY NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION

The author of this book lived only long enough to hear of the favour
with which it had been received, and to make a few corrections in view
of the second edition which it has so soon reached.

_December 1908._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE ANCIENT VIEW 17

CHAPTER II
THE MODERN VIEW 20

CHAPTER III
THE SOLAR SYSTEM 29

CHAPTER IV
CELESTIAL MECHANISM 38

CHAPTER V
CELESTIAL DISTANCES 46

CHAPTER VI
CELESTIAL MEASUREMENT 55

CHAPTER VII
ECLIPSES AND KINDRED PHENOMENA 61

CHAPTER VIII
FAMOUS ECLIPSES OF THE SUN 83

CHAPTER IX
FAMOUS ECLIPSES OF THE MOON 101

CHAPTER X
THE GROWTH OF OBSERVATION 105

CHAPTER XI
SPECTRUM ANALYSIS 121

CHAPTER XII
THE SUN 127

CHAPTER XIII
THE SUN--_continued_ 134

CHAPTER XIV
THE INFERIOR PLANETS 146

CHAPTER XV
THE EARTH 158

CHAPTER XVI
THE MOON 183

CHAPTER XVII
THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 209

CHAPTER XVIII
THE SUPERIOR PLANETS--_continued_ 229

CHAPTER XIX
COMETS